Minnie Mouse

Looking back at this past weekend I realized that I never did a recap of my daughter’s 1st birthday party. I planned tirelessly for several weeks without realizing that the week before the party I was going to get a terrible cold. The day of the party everything that could go wrong did for but nonetheless we had a blast. Hardly anyone knew that I was involved in a hit-and-run accident on my way to the venue. My original cake that I stayed up all night working on along with 60% of my desserts were ruined as a result of the accident. My little Buttercup refused to take a nap that day and was super fuzzy. About 10% of the desserts that made it through the accident began to melt. Would I change things about that party? Absolutely. Would it really matter to anyone but me? Probably not. Like I previously mentioned here the day of the party is dedicated to fun. I had a blast watching everyone put on their Mickey & Minnie ears, playing carnival games, and mostly I enjoyed celebrating with those I love. Without further ado here’s a little glimpse at the party we thew my little Buttercup last year.

Well there you have it folks bits and pieces of the party we thew my little Buttercup. Will she remember it? No, but will I tell her how much I loved planning it. On another note I really need to start taking more photos of all the DIY things I do.

Please refer to my two Pinterest board for more inspiration. HERE and HERE

Please stay tune in the following weeks for a re-cap of this year’s Frozen extravaganza.

Update: Thanks for stopping by and checking out out the centerpieces I made for my daughter’s 1st birthday!

One of the cutest projects I did for my daughter’s 1st birthday party was the Mickey & Minnie Gumball Machines. I received so many compliments from this project and it was pretty easy to make. I followed Damaris’ directions on how to make these colorful centerpieces and they turned out super cute. For complete directions on how to make these please go HERE. Please enjoy the photos I took of the process.

Tips:

I filled the gumball machines with candy from the Dollar Tree.

This project is easy but be aware that it requires a lot of time to dry.

When I was growing up my mom always made a big deal about my birthday and to this day I can tell you exactly how I spend each one. I didn’t have elaborate parties but nonetheless she always seem to make them extra special. Now that I have a child of my own I’m extremely giddy about planning her 1st birthday party. If you follow me on Pinterest you have probably seen my Mickey & Minnie board. It isn’t a big surprise to anyone that I would start with a Disney theme for my daughter’s 1st birthday because after all Walt Disney did say, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”

1.) Date

My little Buttercup’s birthday falls on a weekday so we decided to celebrate it on the following Saturday.

2.) Time

My mom was shocked when I told her the party was only going to be 3 hours long and I had to explain to her that it’s a kids party. I think that 3 hours is more than enough time for a 1st birthday party. I have given my Hubby instructions to make sure our little Buttercup takes her nap before her party.

3.)Theme

Choosing Mickey and MInnie was a given but trying to decide on what colors to use was a little more work. I can’t seem to find the traditional colors for Minnie so I’m going to have to DIY most of her things. I’m going to stick with the classic red, white, black, and yellow as colors for the party. Oh and you bet there will be a ton of polka dots everywhere.

4.) Guest list

Deciding on who to invite is always hard for me because I want to include everyone in our lives. We’re inviting immediate family, close friends and a few of the Hubby’s co-workers. I hope there’s a ton of kids because I’m planning a lot of surprises for them.

5.) Venue

Since we don’t have a house to hold my daughter’s birthday at we had to look for a venue that would allow me to bring in lots of desserts and it had to be indoors. We are lucky to live in Southern California because we have a lot to choose from too bad most of them cost an arm and a leg.

6.) Menu

I really hate going to a kids party where only “adult” food get’s served at. We will be serving lots of kid friendly foods and I’m still trying to finalize what to serve the adults.

7.) Invitations

Another things that irritates me about parties nowadays is when parents send out invites through email or through a Facebook announcement. For heaven sakes please do yourself a favor and go to the dollar store and pick some simple invitations. I believe that if people are in a budget then they can hand them out themselves rather than sending them out. I’m going to be making my little Buttercup’s invitations because I love the process working with stationery.

8.) Decorations

I’m doing all the decorations myself with my new Cricut machine but if you have never been to a dollar store please find your nearest one.

9.) Games or Entertainment

Hopefully the weather cooperates with me and I’m able to setup carnival like games outside otherwise I’m going to have to have a backup plan.

10.) Fun!

Once all the planning is done and it’s the day of the party I’m planning on enjoying every bit of it. The reason I’m crazy about planning every last detail is because I’m less worried if anything goes wrong the day of the party. I mean I can’t do anything about the weather or about who’s going to show up so I’m not going to stress out about those things. I’m going to sit back and have fun.

Don’t worry in the next few months I’ll come back to this list and elaborate a tad on each item.

If you are planning a Mickey and Minnie in the future come back to check out my DIY projects and a mini giveaway I will be hosting early next year.

…well let me rephrase, as my mom would discribes it I have a love affair with “the” Mouse. I’m not exactly sure when I began to love Disney so much but somewhere along the line it happened. I bet what you’re thinking now this girl must be one of thoseannual pass holders that goes into the park and spends all her day pin trading or an all around Disney freak but I’m far from that.

What I am is a Disney fan who used to be a cast member that devoted almost 10 years of her life to the Mouse (I quit to focus on my education). I visit Disneyland about twice a year, I’ve been to Disney World once in 2006, and I’m planning on visiting Disneyland Paris next month since I’ll be in Europe. My apartment is not decorated with Disney stuff and the only clothing I have that has a Disney logo on it are my old Disney VoluntEARS t-shirts. As a matter of fact unless I tell people directly about my love for the Mouse they don’t have a clue. Maybe later on I’ll share with you some of the magic that I got to create when I worked there. Yes, you heard me right MAGIC!

So, why exactly am I telling you this? I’m doing it because I want to be more transparent and because I wanted to share with you some photos of our visit to the D23 expo.

The hubby surprised me back in April with tickets to the event and you bet I was extremely excited. We only got tickets for one day and after being there all day I realized why people get the weekend ones. It really was so much fun even for non Disney fans. There was a lot of painting, exhibits, and things to do.

Isn’t Tow Mater adorable? He’s so darn cute I couldn’t help but take a picture of him.

This was very creative. I wonder if he’s going to be walking around with Jack on Halloween.

How cool would it be to go on a Cruise on board the new Disney Fantasy? I’m hoping to convince the hubby to take me on one sometime soon.

They had a section of the expo dedicated to Disney parties and cakes. The cakes they had came from their officially licensed partner Cakes.com.

Isn’t this Mickey and Minnie cake adorable?

I love this Woody and Buzz cake.

If you would like to see more of my photos from the D23 expo please visit me at Flickr!